XAMPP Lite, Windows Vista, and php5apache2_2.dll

By  on  

I recently ran into a nightmare when needing to use my father's laptop for development.  My XAMMP Lite USB install, which worked perfectly on my Windows XP desktop, was giving the following error when trying to start Apache:

apache.exe: Syntax error on line 477 of E:/xampplite/apache/conf/httpd.conf: 
Syntax error on line 7 of E:/xampplite/apache/conf/extra/httpd-xampp.conf: 
Cannot load E:/xampplite/apache/bin/php5apache2_2.dll into server: The specified module
could not be found.

After 20 minutes of frustration, I finally found the golden solution.  I needed to download and place msvcr71.dll in my \xampplite\apache\bin folder.  Apparently it's a Microsoft runtime file that Vista doesn't have. Disaster averted!

Recent Features

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Creating Spacers with Flexbox

    I was one of the biggest fans of flexbox before it hit but, due to being shuffled around at Mozilla, I never had the chance to use it in any practice project; thus, flexbox still seems like a bit of a mystery to me.  This greatly...

  • By
    JavaScript Speech Recognition

    Speech recognition software is becoming more and more important; it started (for me) with Siri on iOS, then Amazon's Echo, then my new Apple TV, and so on.  Speech recognition is so useful for not just us tech superstars but for people who either want to work "hands...

Discussion

  1. I think thats a DLL that gets installed with .NET.

  2. I would have loved to have known that back in April when I had to set up LAMP on a Vista laptop. Yikes, was it a nightmare!!! AT least I know the fix now. Thanks!!!!!

  3. Jeff Hartman

    That’s a relief.

  4. Tommix

    Does anyone can tell me-why you guys don’t use AppServ, i always used it and don’t know why use others.

  5. Rashy

    David try WAMP Server. It won’t ask you to disable UAC ;)

  6. From France : Thank you very much David, exactly the same problem, since some days. It’s for me a golden and diamond solution !
    And you give the good link to download this file : royal !

  7. BAguiar

    THANK YOU MAN

  8. alwic

    Thanks David, i have that problem too. hope it will fix the problem.

  9. Thanks a lot man . It was the perfect solution.
    Microsoft distorted our brains and wasted a plenty of our time.

    Thanks again.

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!